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How to Create Content from Home | Friday Chatter

May 15, 2020

Because life isn’t really looking like the above image right now… what do we do?

A few weeks ago, I asked my community what y’all MOST wanted to see on the blog, and overwhelmingly, all of my creative friends let me know that they wanted to know MORE about how they can be creating content and sharing their businesses from home. I do a video chat with a few of my creative gal pals every other week, and we were expressing that we were really fearful of HOW we were going to share our businesses without the ability to create and share new work while on-the-job with clients.

As pretty much any creative small business owner knows, sharing your story and your work often is an absolute must. That said, HOW do you do this when you may have in-person sessions, weddings, and other items of work on hold?

First, I know this season is beyond frustrating… I’m right there with you. DC’s stay at home order is in place until June 8 at a minimum… and after that? Who knows what life will look like…

That said, you, my friend are a creative and you can use your creative brain to your advantage here. Getting creative on the job is what you do best… when it comes to creating content from home, you just need to use your same creativity in a new way! I want to encourage you to not get paralyzed here… you can do this… do something… you CAN share your story and your brand… and even more than that, you NEED to share your story and your brand.

So… how do we do that? There are about a million and one ways you can do this, but we’ll start with these few suggestions today! Feel free to use this as a jumping point to inspire future posts and future content of your own.

*Note: A lot of these tips will apply to photographers, specifically, photographers in the wedding industry! That said, I think you can use all of these tips and tricks to get yourself inspired.

Partnerships

I don’t know about y’all, but I think we could all use a little more community than usual these days. Shouting out your fellow creative friends and local small businesses is an amazing way to create content while supporting your local friends and local businesses. Here are a few ideas of how you could implement this!

Interview Fellow Creatives

This is something that I’ve LOVED doing! I got to interview two of my sweet friends so far and have another friend that I’ll be interviewing soon! Not only do I get to shout out amazing humans doing amazing things while sharing their businesses with a new audience, but I also get to share NEW information with my clients about things I’m not a pro on. Win-win! I’ve been doing these via Zoom and have been cutting up the video recordings while making playlists on Youtube. Super simple… a little time-consuming… but they’ve been getting a great response!

Photograph your food deliveries/takeout… try a recipe from a blogger and photograph it

This is one of my favorite points mostly because it involves food… but also because it gives you the chance to shout out and highlight local businesses and your favorite bloggers! I know we’ve shifted to takeout and delivery vs dining in at restaurants, and with extra time on our hands, are maybe trying our hands at new-to-us recipes and DIY projects. It sounds SO silly, but what if you took an extra beat to style and photograph your takeout tonight… or photographed your loaf of banana bread before slicing it up… or documented a DIY project on your Instagram story while tagging the account/blogger where you found the tutorial? Just like that, you are creating personal content for yourself while creating content that may be shared by others too!

These things are so simple and they may not end up in your main feed, but they are a great way to flex your creative spirit while getting behind the camera again. Who knows… maybe you send the images to the restaurants or bloggers and they share your work on their social media accounts while they get to share their own story? It may not be the work you want to be doing forever, but it is a great way to love on your local or small biz friends. Feel free to get strategic with this too! Which businesses and bloggers would your ideal client be following? You never know what connections you’ll make!

The below picture on the left was snapped a few Saturdays ago! My roommate and I bought a DIY Aperol Spritz kit from Lupo Verde and, not only were they delicious, but they were fun to photograph too! I might not be sharing this image on my feed, but it felt good to touch my camera again, and could be something that I could send to the restaurant for them to share if they wanted to advertise their kits!

Partner with local small businesses & photograph their items

This is similar to my above point and isn’t something that I’ve done yet, but I’m considering it! In this season of closures and limited person-to-person contact, I know so many small business owners have been getting super innovative with creating new products, new art, or are looking for ways to share their work online. The only problem? They may not have access to the images they are used to receiving from a wedding day, styled shoots, or other in-person photography sessions. If you are able to safely receive mail or goods from others in the mail right now, it may be really fruitful (and fun!!) to reach out to creatives and small business owners in your community. Consider a partnership with them as you photographing their goods or items. Yes, this may look like working for free, but again, it gives you a chance to flex your creative spirit while styling items and creating new imagery for you to share in your feeds. You’re creating content for yourself AND for others! I recommend reaching out to local friends that fit with your ideal client or ideal brand while making sure that YOU could potentially fit their ideal style and brand as well.

Personal Photography

Host a photo session of YOU in your home

Just because we’re not able to be out and about for photo sessions doesn’t mean that you can’t take photos of yourself from home! In this free educational guide, I walk you through my entire thought process behind personal marketing, including the process and tools I use to take my own photos at home (Plus some resources and worksheets to get you started!!). HERE is the link to get yourself set up with the freebie! Pro tip: Before you host your own photo session from home, I recommend drafting through your content calendar for the upcoming weeks! Get specific when it comes to blog posts and Instagram posts. From there? Make a shot list! (More on this topic soon!)

PS you could ALSO hold a photoshoot of or with the humans and pets you are quarantining with!

Share personal work, a trip from your archives, or something unique to you

I know we all have that one trip or personal project or something that has been in our archives, just waiting for a social or blog post! If you are looking for fun and exciting content to share right now, I highly recommend digging through your personal folders to see what you have to share! Maybe this looks like photographing and sharing your family (if that is something you’re comfortable with)… maybe this looks like sharing a trip from the archives… fun facts… goals… a personal project… something else? Get creative here. I’m sure you would be surprised to find out just how much you actually have to share!

PS A little encouragement here: my personal posts and trip recaps often get the MOST engagement of any of my posts!! As a content consumer, I know I would love to virtually tour somewhere other than my home! Create content from your own life. To learn more about my thought process behind personal sharing, click here!

Share a behind the scenes day on stories

My roommate and I were talking the other day, and we realized that, so often on social media (especially these days), we see the highest highs and oftentimes lowest lows, but we don’t necessarily see the in-between… the day to day tasks… and simple things. I know seeing other people living normal lives similar to my own right now would be so incredibly refreshing on stories! Consider sharing a behind the scenes day where you share your routine in combination with tips and tricks! Creating content from your day to day life IS valuable. You never know just how much impact something like this could have!

Deep dive into your offerings/experiences… share solutions to your most common pain points in a positive way

This is something I’m trying so hard to do right now as I prep and create content for the future. One of the biggest guides that I use for creating blog content is… first looking at which questions I get via email most often, and second if I’ve identified any pain points or solutions that I can share with clients to make their experience with me or another photographer a little easier! This is a really simple way to serve your clients and to answer their questions before they may have even realized they had any! Plus… it is a great way to share more about your experience and offerings while establishing yourself as a pro in your field! A few ideas to get you started?

Share style inspiration or links to your favorite boutiques

Blog about how to solve a roadblock during a certain portion of the day

Catch up on blogging old work or share/highlight favorite images

I promise I’m not judging… but if you have older sessions or weddings that you would love to share but just haven’t had a chance yet, don’t wait! Curate and share that post. The world deserves to see your gorgeous work, and I know that SO many people are looking for beautiful things to scroll through these days. Now is a great time to start boosting your SEO juices while sharing more of the work that you want to photograph in the future! If you didn’t get to do a 2019 favorites recap post, consider doing it now! You could put a creative twist on it too… instead of sharing your favorite images, you could share your favorite venue locations, detail inspiration, portrait poses, color palettes, or something else! Use your creative brain to repurpose your work in a beneficial way for both your business and your clients.

Share your all-time favorite images on social

Going off of the note above, share your favorite work… share MORE of what you want to photograph… keep posting!!! Don’t be afraid to dig deep into your archives to find gorgeous images. Yes, I know this post is supposed to be about creating NEW content, but what if you used a photo of older work that is aligned with work you want to do while sharing with some new caption copy? Solve a client’s problem… share something that makes you, you… shout out vendors… there are seriously SO many things you could do with this to create current content! I personally keep a folder on my computer with all of my favorite images on my computer from when I built out my 2019 favorites blog posts! This has been so helpful with updating my portfolio while staying current on the social media game!

One final note: Get creative… as creative small business owners, this is what we do BEST.

I know this was a lot… but if you want to begin or continue creating content from home, I am confident that you got this! My best advice? Just start. It’s cheesy, but it’s true. You are a creative, friend, and having fun with creating things is what you do best! Sure, you may not be doing the things you LOVE on a day-to-day basis, but where can you look to start finding ways to produce content NOW that will allow you to do more of what you love in the future?! I can’t wait to watch you shine!!